People planning to spend their Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja holidays outside the capital buying bus tickets at Gabtoli terminal yesterday, the first day of advance sales. As in the previous years, many did not get tickets, as those were 'sold out' within a few hours into the opening of the sale. Photo: Rashed Shumon Tickets for some particular days ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja we
re sold out hours after the advance bus tickets sale kicked off yesterday, claimed bus operators in the capital. As a result, many failed to get the tickets for the days they had planned to travel, evening after standing in long queues at different bus terminals for hours. The holidaymakers had no other option but to buy tickets for the alternative days. They claimed they go through the same situation almost every year. “I had to buy four tickets to Rangpur for October 1,” Golam Mortuza, who wanted to travel the next day, told the told The Daily Star at the Shyamoli bus terminal yesterday. The bus operators said the demand for tickets for October 2-5 was high yesterday, leading to the crisis. The homegoers are likely to get a five-day holiday, starting from October 3, for the two upcoming festivals. Many ticket-seekers alleged the bus operators were selling only the tickets of the back-row seats as the front ones were being kept for the VIPs. "I was the fourth person in my queue. When my turn came around 8:30am, the counter staff told me no middle or front row seat was available,” said Abdul Alim, a Thakurgaon-bound passenger, at the Gabtoli bus counter of Hanif Paribahan. Advertisement He said he had to buy two back-row seats for October 3 later. The SR Paribhahan's Gabtoli counter staff suddenly stopped selling advance bus tickets yesterday afternoon. They went for launch even though hundreds were standing in the queues there. They returned after two and a half hours around 4:30pm only to resume the ticket sale for an hour. Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners' Association President Faruk Talukder Sohel said thousands of people leave the capital together on three or four particular days ahead of the festivals, leading to the ticket crisis. “If the passengers decide to travel on different days, the problem can be resolved to a great extent,” he said adding the number of transport is currently not enough to meet the Eid demand. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway will start selling the advance train tickets from September 26.
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